New Textbook

Related Products

Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric The Use of Reason in Everyday Life (with InfoTrac)

Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life

Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life, 11th Edition

Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric The Use of Reason in Everyday Life

Summary

This classic text, first published in 1971, has introduced tens of thousands of students to sound reasoning using a wealth of current, relevant, and stimulating examples all put together and explained in Howard Kahane's uniquely witty and invigorating writing style. Long the choice of instructors who want to "keep students interested", LOGIC AND CONTEMPORARY RHETORIC combines examples from TV, newspapers, magazines, advertisements, and, in typical Kahanian fashion, our nationšs political dialogue. The text not only brings the concepts alive for students, but puts critical thinking skills into a context that students will retain and use throughout their lives. This is a book you can actually count on students to read.

Table of Contents

Preface

viii

Good and Bad Reasoning

1

(30)

Reasoning and Arguments

2

(2)

Exposition and Argument

4

(2)

Cogent Reasoning

6

(3)

Two Basic Kinds of Valid Arguments

9

(3)

Some Wrong Ideas about Cogent Reasoning

12

(2)

Background Beliefs

14

(1)

Kinds of Background Beliefs

15

(1)

Worldviews or Philosophies

16

(1)

Insufficiently Grounded Beliefs

17

(5)

Two Vital Kinds of Background Beliefs

22

(1)

Science to the Rescue

23

(8)

Summary of Chapter 1

27

(4)

More on Deduction and Induction

31

(16)

Deductive Validity

31

(3)

Deductive Invalidity

34

(1)

Syllogisms

35

(2)

Indirect Proofs

37

(1)

Tautologies, Contradictions, and Contingent Statements

37

(1)

Inductive Validity (Correctness) and Invalidity (Incorrectness)

38

(4)

A Misconception about Deduction and Induction

42

(1)

Reasoning Cogently versus Being Right in Fact

43

(4)

Summary of Chapter 2

43

(4)

Fallacious Reasoning---1

47

(26)

Appeal to Authority

48

(4)

Inconsistency

52

(6)

Straw Man

58

(1)

False Dilemma and the Either-Or Fallacy

58

(1)

Begging the Question

59

(2)

Questionable Premise---Questionable Statement

61

(1)

Suppressed (Overlooked) Evidence

62

(2)

Tokenism

64

(9)

Summary of Chapter 3

65

(8)

Fallacious Reasoning---2

73

(18)

Ad Hominem Argument

73

(2)

Two Wrongs Make a Right

75

(3)

Irrelevant Reason (Non Sequitur)

78

(2)

Equivocation

80

(2)

Appeal to Ignorance

82

(2)

Composition and Division

84

(1)

Slippery Slope

84

(7)

Summary of Chapter 4

85

(6)

Fallacious Reasoning---3

91

(28)

Hasty Conclusion

91

(1)

Small Sample

92

(1)

Unrepresentative Sample

92

(1)

Questionable Cause

93

(3)

Questionable Analogy

96

(2)

Questionable Statistics

98

(2)

Questionable Uses of Good Statistics

100

(2)

Polls: An Important Special Case

102

(3)

False Charge of Fallacy

105

(14)

Summary of Chapter 5

107

(12)

Psychological Impediments to Cogent Reasoning: Shooting Ourselves in the Foot

119

(26)

Loyalty, Provincialism, and the Herd Instinct

120

(2)

Prejudice, Stereotypes, Scapegoats, and Partisan Mind Sets

122

(2)

Superstitious Beliefs

124

(1)

Wishful Thinking and Self-Deception

125

(2)

Rationalization and Procrastination

127

(4)

Other Defense Mechanisms

131

(1)

The Benefits of Self-Deception, Wishful Thinking, and Denial

132

(2)

The Pull of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal

134

(3)

Lack of a Good Sense of Proportion

137

(8)

Summary of Chapter 6

139

(6)

Language

145

(28)

Cognitive and Emotive Meanings

145

(1)

Emotive Meanings and Persuasive Uses of Language

146

(6)

Other Common Rhetorical Devices

152

(6)

Language Manipulators

158

(4)

Language Revision

162

(11)

Summary of Chapter 7

167

(6)

Evaluating Extended Arguments

173

(30)

The Basic Tasks of Essay Evaluation

174

(7)

The Margin Note and Summary Method

181

(5)

Extended Evaluation of an Argument

186

(5)

Dealing with Value Claims

191

(5)

Evaluating Ironic Works

196

(7)

Summary of Chapter 8

200

(3)

Writing Cogent (and Persuasive) Essays

203

(26)

The Writing Process

203

(1)

Preparing to Write

204

(1)

Writing the Essay

205

(4)

Supporting Reasons Effectively

209

(20)

Summary of Chapter 9

226

(3)

Advertising: Selling the Product

229

(34)

Promise and Identification Advertisements

230

(2)

Things to Watch Out for in Advertisements

232

(10)

The Upside of Ads

242

(1)

Trends in Marketing

242

(5)

Political Advertising

247

(16)

Summary of Chapter 10

258

(5)

Managing the News

263

(50)

The Media and the Power of Money

264

(13)

News-Gathering Methods Are Designed to Save Money

277

(2)

Misdirection and Lack of Proportion

279

(1)

News Reporting: Theory and Practice

280

(8)

Devices Used to Slant the News

288

(7)

Television, Film, and Electronic Information Sources

295

(4)

The Non-Mass Media to the Rescue

299

(2)

Recent Developments

301

(12)

Summary of Chapter 11

306

(7)

Textbooks: Managing Worldviews

313

(38)

High School History Textbooks

314

(6)

A Typical High School History Textbook

320

(3)

Social Studies (Civics) Textbooks Minimize the Great Gulf between Theory and Practice